Jay Nixon, "RoboCall Cop"

Attorney General and 2008 candidate for Governor Jay Nixon was in Springfield today touting legislation to crack down on "robo" or automated telephone calls from politicians.

Watch the KY3 News @ 10 report HERE.

Nixon is urging lawmakers to pass a bill banning such computerized political calls for the approximately 2.3 million Missourians who are signed up on the state's Do Not Call list.

"The peace and quiet they enjoy from the telemarketing calls is interrupted every 2 years by these robocalls, and 2006 is clearly the worst year yet," Nixon said in a press conference today with Rep. Sara Lampe and Greene County Commissioner Dave Coonrod.

"We need to close the loophole that allows the onslaught of automated political calls during the election season," Lampe added.

Currently, automated political calls are exempt from the list. Nixon said his office received more than 600 complaints about the calls in the weeks before the 2006 election.

Nixon also wants to combine this legislation with language that adds cell phones, fax numbers and text messages to the Do Not Call list.

In 2004 and 2006, political automated call bans passed the Senate, but died in the House.

"I think with the broad bipartisan support we have, this is the year to get it done," Nixon said. "I'd like to get it done early, not get tied up near the end of the session."

Campaign officials said they use these automated calls because they are cheap, costing as low as 6 cents per contact.

"When you can just call some company in Virginia and buy 10,000 or 20,000 calls spewing venom with absolutely no ability for the person receiving that attack to respond, that's not good for democracy," Nixon said.

But some contend this proposal still doesn't go far enough, because it doesn't ban live political calls from campaign volunteers or phone banks.

Registered Republican John Sellars said, on some days, he would receive seven or eight calls in one night. "Thank God it's not a cell phone where your getting charged by the minute. I'd come in, there would be 10, 15, 20 minutes worth of answering messages," Sellars said.

But Sellars said there should be no distinction between live calls and computerized calls. "I think they should both be banned. They're not going far enough. I don't want the call, if I wanted the call, I'd left my name off the list," he said. "Who says politicians can be above the law?"

Sellars said he was appalled by some of the robocalls made against Rep. Sara Lampe and State Senate candidate Doug Harpool. He said attacks against Sen. Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill were equally over-the-top.

But Nixon said banning live calls could raise some free speech issues. "We don't want to cross that at this particular juncture," Nixon said. "Plus if there's a live person on the line talking to you, you can ask questions back and demand from them answers."